The digestive and defensive basis of carcass utilization by the burying beetle and its microbiota

Heiko Vogel, Shantanu P. Shukla, Tobias Engl, Benjamin Weiss, Rainer Fischer, Sandra Steiger, David G. Heckel, Martin Kaltenpoth () and Andreas Vilcinskas ()
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Heiko Vogel: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Shantanu P. Shukla: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Tobias Engl: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Research Group Insect Symbiosis
Benjamin Weiss: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Research Group Insect Symbiosis
Rainer Fischer: Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME)
Sandra Steiger: University of Ulm, Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics
David G. Heckel: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Martin Kaltenpoth: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Research Group Insect Symbiosis
Andreas Vilcinskas: Institute for Insect Biotechnology, Justus Liebig University of Giessen

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Insects that use ephemeral resources must rapidly digest nutrients and simultaneously protect them from competitors. Here we use burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides), which feed their offspring on vertebrate carrion, to investigate the digestive and defensive basis of carrion utilization. We characterize gene expression and microbiota composition in the gut, anal secretions, and on carcasses used by the beetles. We find a strict functional compartmentalization of the gut involving differential expression of immune effectors (antimicrobial peptides and lysozymes), as well as digestive and detoxifying enzymes. A distinct microbial community composed of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and a clade of ascomycetous yeasts (genus Yarrowia) is present in larval and adult guts, and is transmitted to the carcass via anal secretions, where the yeasts express extracellular digestive enzymes and produce antimicrobial compounds. Our results provide evidence of potential metabolic cooperation between the host and its microbiota for digestion, detoxification and defence that extends from the beetle’s gut to its nutritional resource.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15186

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